Digvijay trashes exit polls,says Cong will get 100 seats in UP

New Delhi(PTI): Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh today trashed the results thrown up by exit polls in five assembly states, terming such exercises as ”frauds,” and predicted ”astonishing” gains for his party in Uttar Pradesh.
An Indian woman voter gives her thumb impression before casting her vote inside a polling station in Gajrola, about 95 kilometers (59 miles) from New Delhi, India, Saturday, March 3, 2012. AP
The results of a number of exit polls announced yesterday predicted that Samajwadi Party will emerge as the single largest bloc in UP, while Congress will be a distant fourth.

However, Singh questioned the reliability of exit poll exercises and said he rejected them “101 per cent”.

“Exit polls are frauds. How can you define the votes of 12 crores voters in such small sample sizes? Tell me which exit polls have been accurate in predicting results in the past,” he said, when asked to comment on exit polls on the sidelines of an event here.

He said as a person entrusted with the responsibility of AICC in the state of UP, he was ready for anything but added that according to his analysis “the elections will throw up astonishing results for the Congress”.

Asked how many seats he expected the Congress to win, Singh earlier told PTI, “At least one hundred.”

Asked what he thought of the exit polls’ prediction that Samajwadi Party could even get an absolute majority on its own, Singh said, “Impossible.”

“I reject the exit polls 101 per cent, and I will talk on March 6. In fact, I will write to the broadcast authority to ask them that exit polls should explain their methodology and procedures properly,” he said.

Asked to comment on the fact that Rahul Gandhi has been the face of Congress in the campaign and that the results will also reflect on him, Singh said, “Leadership only gives a face to a party and determines the direction in which the wind blows, but turning this into votes in largely the work of party workers”.

Asked about the possibility of post-poll alliances, he said his party had already made its stance clear on the issue.

“If we emerge as the single largest party, we will stake our claim, otherwise, we will sit in the opposition,” he said.